Chemicals, contact dermatitis and the role of the personal injury solicitor
A personal injury solicitor will often specialise in one personal injury form. YouClaim's personal injury solicitors have experience in the complete spectrum of specialisms; including holiday accidents, birth injury, road traffic injury and work related accidents.
One such work related claim can arise when an employee contracts contact dermatitis as a consequence of their everyday employment.
Occupational irritant contact dermatitis (its full name) is localised inflammation of, or injury to the skin; typically, a reaction to contact with a substance. Reaction may take the form of swelling, redness, heat and/or pain, with further blisters, scales or crusts. This type of injury most commonly occurs when an employee comes into contact with irritant chemicals, such as acids (e.g. hydrochloric, sulphuric), bases (e.g. sodium hydroxide, ammonia) and fat dissolving solvents (e.g. diethyl ether, carbon tetrachloride).
When dealing with a compensation claim for contact dermatitis a personal injury solicitor will look at all aspects of the development of the injury.
In the work place there are two ways that contact dermatitis can develop, firstly rapidly; after a short, heavy exposure to a chemical, such as a spill or splash accident, and secondly after repeated or prolonged low exposure to a substance where inadequate training or protective clothing has been provided to the employee.
Employers whose businesses deal with any type or grade of chemicals have a legal obligation under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations (CoSHH) to protect their employees from conditions such as contact dermatitis.
Under CoSHH regulations employers must:
- assess the risks to health from chemicals and decide what controls are needed;
- use those controls and make sure workers use them;
- make sure the controls are working properly;
- inform workers about the risks to their health;
- train workers.
Contact dermatitis and the personal injury solicitor
If you have contracted contact dermatitis or suffered similar work related injury then call YouClaim on 0800 10 757 95 to see if you could claim 100% compensation. Our expert staff will team you up with a personal injury solicitor who will expertly guide you through the complete procedure. If it is not convenient to talk to us right now we can call you back or you could fill in an online claim form and we will contact you to discuss your claim further.
